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laud and sea are carried back into an antiquity very much greater than 

 the period to which authentic history i-eaches, is proved by the oldest 

 civilized remains of which Scotland can boast — I mean those of the 

 Romans. My purpose requires me to refer to only one of these, 

 the site of the last co-terminating fort upon the Roman wall of 

 Antoninus, or Graham's Dyke, as it is commonly called. This site is 

 occupied by the ruins of a modern fortalice, Dauglass Castle, and lias 

 also been selected as the appropriate spot on which to erect an 

 honorary tribute to Henry Bell, the first proprietor of steamboats on 

 the Clyde. 



You may be aware that " the first time the isthmus between the Clyde 

 and the Forth was fortified by the Romans was in the year 81, while 

 Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, was emperor. This was done by 

 Agricola, during his fourth summer in Caledonia. He placed, however, 

 merely a row of forts, without any connecting wall or curtain, having 

 ulterior plans which were marred by the death of his patron Titus, and 

 his recal by Domitian. The wall was constructed about sixty years 

 afterwards, (answering to the year a.d. 140), by Julius Urbicus, the 

 Governor of Britain under Antoninus Pius. The plan of this military 

 fortification was a great trench, stretching from Clyde to Forth — at 

 Dunglass rocky promontory on the former, to Caeriden on the latter, 

 in line with and connecting the old forts of Agricola, but with a number 

 of additional ones placed at intervals. The earth from the trench was 

 thrown up into a rampart on the south side, and faced at some places 

 with stone, at others with turf, and along the south ran a paved military 

 way. The distance between the forts was generally two miles. It was 

 not nearly so stupendous a work as the great wall of Hadrian, between 

 the Solway and the Tyne, which was of stone." 



I have now to notice that, " when both walls were built, they were 

 erected with reference to a sea-level at either end, corresponding very 

 nearly, if not entirely, with that at present e.xisting in both the Scotch 

 and English estuaries."- — (Mr. Buchanan's letter to me.) If Dunglass 

 was the site of the terminating fort on the Clyde estuary, its situation, 

 almost on a line with the present surface of the water, affords a proof that 

 the relative level of the sea is not lower now than it was in the year 

 140, or 1,710 years ago. 



If, then, 2,000 years has seen such a slow rise as merely to convert 

 a swamp into dry ground, almost without raising it at all, except where 

 that has been done througli artificial means adopted by man, how shall 

 we calculate the epochs necessary for the formation of the numerous 

 beaches found at so many various heights fi'om the present sea-level 



